A Small Reward
by No Guns Only Roses
Summary: Magma had a choice to make: to either make Hodges pay along with the city for ruining his life, or to do the right thing. An alternate ending to the Batman Beyond episode "Heroes".


**I felt so bad for Magma from the Batman Beyond episode "Heroes". So I wrote an alternate ending in which he does the right thing and deactivate the generator.**

 **NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.**

 _"Michael!"_

He despetately reached for his beloved as she was being sucked into the air vents, but he missed her by inches. With his feet and legs frozen, he could only watch helplessly as her delicate gaseous body was being disassembled by the powerful ventilation system. Freon let out a blood-chilling scream of pain and agony as she slowly faded away before his very eyes.

The shutters slammed shut, and tiny snowflakes floated down to where Magma stood.

 _Mary..._

She was gone. The only person in the world who ever truly mattered to him was gone forever. He had nothing left now but a burning desire for revenge.

Letting out an anguished roar, he broke the ice with his fists and freed himself. He turned to see Batman running toward the controls of the generator. Before the Dark Knight could push the "ABORT" button, Magma quickly blocked his way with his massive arm.

No one was going to get in the way of his revenge, not even Batman.

The dark vigilante stepped away from the raging monster but he refused to run. "I gotta shut that thing off! Thousands of people will die!"

Maybe, but at least Hodges would pay for ruining his life and taking away everything that was dear to him. And besides, the thousands who would fall victim to the radiation were nothing compared to Mary, and now she was gone, along with his dear friend Stuart. He had no one left in this world.

Batman continued to plead with him. "Magma...Dr. Morgan...you can't let that happen. You're a hero, remember?"

Hero. That word insulted him.

He was never meant to be a hero. He was supposed to live the normal life of a scientist. He and Mary were going to get married and soon afterwards have children of their own. He wanted to watch them grow up and eventually go into retirement, living out the remainder of his life in peace with her at his side. But instead, he was transformed into a freak of nature, along with Mary and Stuart, and thanks to his transformation, he couldn't even touch his fiancé anymore. They were forced to become crime fighters, because it was either that or be locked away like the monsters that they were. It wasn't like they even had a choice.

But even after everything they've done for the city, the military deemed them too dangerous and tried to obliterate them. And then they found out that Hodges was behind the incident that changed their lives forever. Their own friend.

He wasn't a hero. Heroes make a choice. He never did.

And then the face of the little girl he saved the other night flashed in his mind. She was so terrified of him that she began to cry, begging for him not to hurt her. In the child's eyes, he wasn't a hero, but a scary monster, like the ones in her nightmares. She was somewhere in the city, probably asleep in her bed, and if the radiation were to break out, she along with thousands would perish.

Was he going to be the monster that the little girl feared and let the city burn? Or was he going to be the hero whom thousands of kids looked up to and shut it down?

Hodges used one of Batman's batarangs to free himself from the ice that held him down and frantically crawled toward the exit.

At that moment, Mike Morgan _did_ have a choice: to either make Hodge pay along with the whole city for his suffering, or to do the right thing.

He thought about Stuart, his best friend with whom he chatted in the morning over a cup of coffee and on some nights played a game of poker. He thought about Howard, his former friend who betrayed his trust and tried to have him killed all so he could have Mary to himself. He thought about Mary, whom he loved with all his heart.

With a heavy sigh, he reached for the "ABORT" button.

Terry quietly sighed in relief as Magma pushed it, and the deadly green rays of radiation faded away as the generator quickly died down. He turned around and saw Hodges crawling down the corridor. He marched right up to the fleeing scientist and roughly grabbed him by his jacket, lifting him off the ground. "Where do you think _you're_ going?" he demanded in his usual gruff Batman voice.

Like the coward that he was, Hodges tried weasel his way out of this. "Please! I never meant for any of this to happen!" His eyes nearly bugged right out his sockets when he saw Magma stomping toward them, his red eyes literally burning with fury. "M-Michael, please! Mary and Stuart were my friends, too! I never wanted to hurt them!"

Magma glared hatefully at him. "No," he growled. "Just me, right?"

Hodges could only bow his head in shame and he allowed Batman to drag him away. Magma followed them, not knowing what the future had in store in for him. But he didn't really care at the moment.

He didn't care about anything.

...

Due to Batman's connection with Commissioner Gordon, Magma's existence was kept a secret from the military. But for his own safety as well as the city's, he was locked away in a private, high security facility, where he was given the best medical treatment available. But no matter what they did, the physicians and scientists could not prevent his genetic condition from deteriorating any further.

It was only a matter of time before Magma would join his lost loved ones, and in a world so cold and unforgiving, he was looking forward to it.

As he sat alone in his cell, wasting away, he thought he heard the click-clack of shoes walking down the halls. He slowly turned his head to the glass door and saw an elderly African American woman with short grey hair standing there.

She smiled warmly at him. "Hello, Dr. Morgan. My name is Amanda Waller."

He greeted her with a simple nod and quiet grunt.

"I heard about what you did back at the particle fusion lab, and I must say, I'm impressed. Even after losing everything and everyone you ever loved, you still did the right thing and saved the city. If that isn't true heroism, I don't know what is."

Magma bitterly scoffed and turned away. "I'm no hero. I'm an accident. A freak."

Amanda somberly nodded. "You and your friends didn't deserve what happened to you. And you certainly don't deserve to die like this. Unfortunately, there's nothing more we can do for you now."

"So it was all for nothing?" Magma closed his eyes. "In the end, there's no reward for being the hero? Just more pain and loss?"

"That's how life is. It takes more than it gives. But I absolutely refuse to let you leave this world without giving you a reward for your bravery and integrity first, even if it is small."

"No offense, but...what do _you_ care?" he huffed.

She gave him a sad smile. "Funny you should ask. Years ago, I was once in charge of Project Cadmus, the purpose of which was to create a brand of superheroes who were loyal to the government. We started it because we wanted to be prepared in the event the Justice League should ever go rogue. So we created a group of young superheroes called the Ultimen. But like you, their genetic condition was growing rapidly unstable just a year after they were activated. I could've done more to help them, but instead I disposed of them and replaced them with clones. No one in the public knew of their deaths."

Magma stared at the soft-spoken old lady in shock. He found it hard to believe that this seemingly kind person could be so heartless. Then again, she did mention that this happened years ago, so maybe she had changed since then.

"Seeing you here reminded me of that incident and how I could've handled it a lot better than I did," she continued. "So I made some contacts and found just the person you need to see before you go."

She stepped aside as a woman with her young daughter came into view. To Magma's utter surprise, it was the little girl who was taken hostage along with her mother, the same girl who looked at him with so much fear in her eyes.

She still seemed nervous to be meeting with him again, and when the door suddenly slid open, she clutched her mother's skirt and moved closer to her. But the woman stroked her head and whispered words of comfort to her as she led her into the cell.

The closer the little girl got, the more nervous she became, and it broke Magma's heart again to see her like this. "Please, you don't have to do this," he spoke to her with such gentleness and pain in his voice that she relaxed slightly.

Her mother gently took her hand and tried to ease her into touching Magma's, but she began to pull away.

"It's alright, dear," Amanda told her. "He can't burn you, not in his current condition."

She was right; he gradually lost his heat over the past month, and soon he would be reduced to nothing but a cold, lifeless rock.

Gulping, the little girl reached a shaky hand to touch the monster's, and when she finally did, it felt lukewarm. She hesitatingly lifted her head and looked up at him, and this time, he didn't seem so scary. In fact, he looked very sad, and she felt sorry for him.

She began to soothingly rub the rocky hand in an attempt to comfort him. "Th-Thank you for-for saving me, mister," she said softly.

Magma smiled down at her and nodded. "I was just doing my job, kid."

There was no longer any fear in the girl's dark eyes and the corners of her mouth lifted into a genuine smile. The mother gave him a grateful nod as she walked with her daughter out of the cell.

After the door slid shut, the little girl waved at him as she walked out of his sight. Amanda stayed for a moment longer, smiling at him through the glass.

He smiled back at her and leaned against the wall, his vision becoming increasingly blurry. "Thank you," he whispered to her. He could feel the heat leaving him and his body stiffening.

"No, Dr. Morgan," he faintly heard her say to him. "Thank _you_."

Then he felt nothing, and everything became dark and quiet. And cold. Very cold.

Then, in the midst of the pitch blackness, a small light slowly grew larger and brighter until it completely blinded him and he had to shield his face with his arm.

 _"Michael!"_

That voice...it sounded like Mary's, only this time it was filled with so much happiness instead of fear and pain.

He lowered his arm and could make out a faint slender figure with long flowing blonde hair that was moving toward him from the light. As his vision became more clear, he saw those familiar beautiful eyes that held such undying love for him.

"Mary...!"

She was human again! No...more like an angel. The most beautiful angel he had ever seen.

He looked down at his own body and realized that he was flesh again. No more rock and lava. Laughing tearfully, he reached his arms out to her.

And for the first time since their transformation, he held her in his arms once again.

 **Happy New Year! :)**


End file.
